Disability Rights: Self-Determination Funding Australia

Author: People with Disability Australia Incorporated
Published: 2010/08/30 - Updated: 2026/01/22
Publication Type: Informative
Category Topic: Australia - New Zealand - Related Publications

Page Content: Synopsis - Introduction - Main - Insights, Updates

Synopsis: This policy position paper from People with Disability Australia (PWD), a national disability rights and advocacy organization, addresses the urgent need for Australia to shift from service-provider-dominated disability policy toward individualized funding systems and barrier removal. The document holds particular authority as it comes directly from an organization primarily constituted by people with disabilities themselves, ensuring the positions reflect lived experience rather than institutional perspectives. The paper outlines four priority recommendations for the Australian Government, including implementation of flexible individualized funding, commitment to the Productivity Commission's inquiry process, systematic barrier removal, and guaranteed participation of people with disabilities in governmental decision-making as required by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This information proves valuable to disability advocates, policymakers, service providers, and individuals with disabilities seeking to understand the distinction between medical-model service provision and rights-based approaches that recognize societal barriers as the primary issue requiring intervention - Disabled World (DW).

Introduction

As a matter of high priority, People with Disability Australia (PWD) calls on the next Australian Government to:

Implement individualized funding and planning systems which are flexible and responsive to the culture, values and preferences of each person
Commit to the processes currently being undertaken through the Productivity Commission's Public Inquiry into Disability Care and Support, and reasonably assess the options when they are presented by the Productivity Commission
Ensure any national disability scheme involves a systematic and sustainable approach to removing the barriers people with disability face
Ensure that any national disability strategy complies with Article 4 of the CRPD -guaranteeing people with disability are involved across government in decision making in all areas of our lives.

Main Content

Problem

Despite the goals of inclusion and participation for people with disability, policy that affects people with disability remains to a large extent limited to service provision, and influenced by service providers and the state based service delivery departments of government.

People with disability and their representative groups have frequently been excluded, at great expense, from influencing the policies that affect the way we live.

This has reinforced the view that people with disability are objects of care and charity, rather than people first, with human, legal, social and consumer rights, who can contribute substantially to the intellectual, cultural, economic and social diversity and wellbeing of our community.

Solution

Nothing short of a paradigm shift is required to create the equality envisaged by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). In order to do this, the development and implementation of policy must take account of the interdependence of the individual; others with disability; the community; and government, rather than view disability as an illness that needs to be treated. Only when disability policy is broader than disability service provision will this be possible.

At its core, policy and practice must recognize that it is society which creates significant barriers for people with disability, and it is the barriers which need to be fixed - not people with disability.

People with Disability Australia Incorporated (PWD) is a national disability rights and advocacy organization. Our primary membership is made up of people with disability and organizations mainly constituted by people with disability. We have a cross-disability focus - we represent the interests of people with all kinds of disability. PWD is a non-profit, non-government organization. Our vision is of a socially just, accessible and inclusive community, in which the human rights, citizenship, contribution, potential and diversity of all people with disability are respected and celebrated. This vision underpins everything that we do.

Insights, Analysis, and Developments

Editorial Note: The fundamental argument presented here - that society creates disability through barriers rather than disability being an inherent deficit requiring treatment - continues to reshape policy discussions globally, yet implementation remains frustratingly slow in many jurisdictions. What makes this particular call to action significant is its practical framework: individualized funding paired with systematic barrier removal represents a workable middle path between purely rights-based advocacy and the fiscal realities governments face. The insistence that people with disabilities must be involved in policy decisions affecting their lives seems obvious in principle, yet as this document reveals, exclusion from such processes has been standard practice, perpetuating outdated charitable models. Whether Australia's subsequent disability reforms adequately addressed these concerns remains a question worth examining for other nations grappling with similar transitions from institutional to individualized support systems - Disabled World (DW).